Inventive concepts disclosed herein relate to a semiconductor memory device, for example, to magnetic memory devices, electronic systems and memory cards including the same, methods of manufacturing the same, and methods of controlling a magnetization direction of a magnetic pattern.
As faster and lower power consuming electronic devices are desired, semiconductor memory devices used therein also need to have a faster read/write operation and/or a lower operating voltage. As one plan to satisfy one or more of the above requirements, a magnetic memory device has been proposed as a semiconductor memory. Since the magnetic memory device operates at higher speed and has a nonvolatile characteristic, it has drawn attention as a next generation memory device.
A magnetic memory device may include a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ). A MTJ may include two magnetic materials and a tunnel barrier layer disposed therebetween. Depending on the magnetization directions of the two magnetic materials, a resistance value of the MTJ may vary. For example, when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic materials are anti-parallel to each other, the MTJ may have a relatively large resistance value and when the magnetization directions of the two magnetic materials are parallel to each other, the MTJ may have a relatively small resistance value. By using a difference between the resistance values, the magnetic memory device may be used to write/read data.